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John Wick 5 Possibility Addressed By Franchise Director
The possibility of John Wick 5 is spoken on by franchise director Chad Stahelski. The franchise's mythology has deepened with every installment, and 4th will likely continue the trend as it sees super-assassin John (Keanu Reeves) team up with The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) to take down the High Table. This council that oversees the world's most powerful criminal organizations still has a bounty on John's head after the events of John Wick 2.
John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 were both greenlit in August 2020 after the success of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and were originally planned to be shot back-to-back. While John Wick 4 is still slated to premiere March 24, 2023, a pause has been put on John Wick 5. Stahelski has been with the ongoing hitman odyssey since its first installment, which he co-directed with David Leitch. While Leitch has moved on to other action vehicles like Atomic Blonde, Stahelski has stuck by the character that propelled him from a stuntman to the director's chair and put his name on the map as the overseer of some of the most badass action sequences committed to film.
In an interview with Collider, Stahelski talks about the franchise's future. The recently dropped John Wick 4 trailer and Donnie Yen casting has viewers hyped for the film but ultimately whether John Wick 5 happens or not relies on a few factors. Stahelski remains optimistic, but ultimately defers to the decision-making of studio higher-ups. Check out what he has to say below:
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"[As of right] now it is the studio's [full] intention to continue the franchise. And look, I'm not going to-- we've all seen directors and producers where they go, "Yes. I don't know. I guess I'll do five," or it's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah." And I'm just, "Look, man. 'John Wick 1' was a goof. We made it as a fun little action movie that we'd like to see." And the fact that now nine years later, it's changed our lives. It changed my life. It changed Keanu's life. It's changed a lot of other people's lives. And people still want to see more."
While this one time "goof" is still paying dividends, Stahelski is a busier man than he used to be. Next on his slate are all non-John Wick related projects including adaptations of the 2012 Kaiju novel Project Nemesis, the 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima, and a remake of the 1986 fantasy Highlander starring Henry Cavill. Reeves is no less in demand, so finding a time for the two to rejoin for another John Wick film sounds potentially difficult. But as the director states later in the interview, having a breather between the films generally helps build up the desire to make another and that he'd gladly make them for the rest of his career. Time to breathe, coupled with doing press tours for the John Wick films, and the help of a little spirited lubrication in the form of a nice Japanese whisky are what has helped Stahelski and Reeves typically concoct John Wick's storyline in the past he says.
While no plot may be mapped out for John Wick 5 yet, if the next films are typically conceived on the press tour, then it stands to reason the same will be the case as the director and actor promote John Wick 4 next year. In which case the sequel could be out as early as late 2024, or 2025. Stahelski and Reeves seem game to keep making John Wick movies as long as they have a story to tell, and as long as they have fun making them, and surely the studios will support this as long as moviegoers line up to watch Reeves throw a room full of knives at bad guys. Safe to say John Wick 5 is a sure bet, it's just a matter of time.
